We are pleased to welcome Natacha Perrin in our laboratory for a 6-month internship. Natacha is currently in last year of engineering school in Polytech Clermont. This year, in parallel of her initial formation, she also did a double degree in pharmacy. During her studies, she had the opportunity to work on chitosan-based fibers for medical applications during a 4-month internship in the University of Borås, Sweden.

She arrived at HCS Pharma in April 2022 for a 6-internship to study the modification of the extracellular matrix in Parkinson’s disease. Indeed, although some studies described matrix modification in patient’s brain compared to healthy brain, the modification of the neuronal microenvironment in Parkinson’s disease is poorly documented. Current in vitro models are focus on neuronal features, and don’t take into account the microenvironment.

The objective of Natacha internship is i) to characterized a complex 3D in vitro model including dopaminergic neurons, astrocytes and the matricial microenvironment, thank BIOMIMESYS® Brain matrix, ii) to to study the extracellular matrix modification in presence of pharmacological Parkinson’s disease inducers, and iii) to screen a library of molecules in the aim to identify interest molecules targeting the microenvironment to protect against Parkinson’s disease.

This project are the following of the PhD work of Véronique De Conto, and will allow to better understand the influence of the matricial microenvironment on neuronal degeneration, and thus to develop new protective drugs to stop the neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease.

Welcome Natacha !

Feel free to contact us if you want more information about our 3D cerebral in vitro models !


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